1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicle driving support apparatuses for preventing a collision by performing an automatic braking intervention when there is a high possibility that a subject vehicle can collide with a obstacle such as a preceding vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there have been various proposals for a vehicle driving support apparatus configured to recognize out-of-vehicle information in front of a vehicle by using a millimeter wave radar, an infrared laser radar, a stereo camera, a monocular camera, or the like, and to execute a cruise control for the vehicle based on the recognized out-of-vehicle information. As an example of such cruise control function, there is widely known a follow-up cruise control to follow a preceding vehicle when such a vehicle is detected (captured) in front of a subject vehicle. The follow up cruise control has widely been in practical use as part of an adaptive cruise control (ACC). In a typical use of the ACC, the follow-up cruise control is executed when a preceding vehicle is detected in front of the subject vehicle, and a constant speed cruise control at a preset speed determined by the driver is executed if no preceding vehicle is detected.
In addition, as a cruise control function of the vehicle driving support apparatus, there have been various proposals for and a collision prevention control (so called a pre-crash braking control) that outputs a warning that prompts a brake operation and performs an automatic braking intervention independently from a brake operation by a driver when there is a high possibility that a subject vehicle can collide with a obstacle such as a preceding vehicle.
Furthermore, for a vehicle driving support apparatus of this kind, various technologies that cancel the automatic braking intervention when, for example, a brake pedal is operated by a driver have been proposed so as to give priority to the intention of the driver (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2004-255928).
Under the condition where there is a high possibility of a collision against a preceding vehicle or the like, the driver usually depresses the brake pedal. Thus, in the technology disclosed in JP-A No. 2004-255928, the automatic braking intervention is cancelled in most cases.
Accordingly, the technology disclosed in JP-A No. 2004-255928 may have difficulty effectively avoiding a collision if, for example, the driver's foot accidentally slips off the brake pedal after automatic braking is cancelled in response to the depression of the brake pedal during collision prevention control.